The much-anticipated ruling, which challenged the constitutionality of damage caps for doctors and hospitals, is being watched closely by the health care industry and employers that see caps on damages as a way to tame rising health care costs.
The ruling could figure in the national health care debate of stalled health care legislation. In the U.S. Senate where Republicans have opposed health care reform, the GOP has been vocal about the need for tort reform and caps on damages.
State lawmakers in 2005 passed legislation, which was signed into law by then-Gov. Rod Blagojevich, that established caps on noneconomic damages of $500,000 in cases against doctors and $1 million against hospitals. Illinois followed other states, such as California, that capped damages years ago.
But Justices said they were not persuaded by arguments used in other states. "That ‘everybody is doing it," is hardly a litmus test for the constitutionality of the statute," the court said.
They also said they were not moved by health care reform efforts in Washington, saying the "Obama administration's health care reform efforts are not the backdrop against which we have decided the constitutionality."
The law came after more than two years of political battle in Springfield between trial lawyers and providers of medical care and their insurers. Doctors blamed the lack of malpractice reform for an exodus of physicians from the state, particularly neurosurgeons and obstetricians who had higher insurance premiums.
"Illinois' unbearable medical litigation crisis forced me to actively look outside of this state to practice medicine," Dr. Andrew Roth, an obstetrician practicing in suburban Lombard, said in 2005 after the legislation became law. "The signing of this legislation allows me to stay and take care of my patients."
Though state lawmakers took steps to ensure the law would not be struck down by narrowing the scope of the legislation, doctors and hospitals have been worried about how the Supreme Court would rule.
Twice before in state history, Illinois lawmakers have adopted caps, and both times the Supreme Court eventually nixed them.
The case before the high court comes on appeal from Cook County Circuit Court. In 2007, Cook County Circuit Judge Diane Larsen decided that caps on malpractice awards violated the Illinois Constitution's "separation of powers" clause, in effect ruling that the state Legislature can't interfere with the right of juries and judges to determine fair damages. Larsen's ruling falls in line with a 1997 Illinois Supreme Court decision that overturned a 1995 law implementing caps on personal-injury cases.
The first case to test the law was that of Abigaile LeBron, a 13-month-old girl who suffered a severe brain injury during birth at Gottlieb Memorial Hospital in Melrose Park.
